Tie plate bearing anchor



Oct. 23, 1962 J. J. GALLAGHER TIE PLATE BEARING ANCHOR Filed May 8, 1958 FIG! INVENTORZ JOHN J. GALLAGHER BYX/ ATT' atent Gflfice Patented Oct. 23, 1962 3,05%,855 TE PLATE BEARiNG ANCHOR John J. Gallagher, Denver, Colo, assignor to Poor 8: Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Filed May 8, 1958, Ser. No. 733,986 3 Claims. (Cl. 238327) This invention relates to improvements in railway rail anchors of a general class which grip the base of a rail and are adapted to abut exclusively against a vertical face of a tie plate interposed between the bottom surface of the rail and the top surface of an underlying cross-tie.

In some railway constructions, the tie plates are so positioned on their associated cross-ties that the edge of a plate to be engaged by a rail anchor extends to the vertical side face of such cross-tie. In other constructions the tie plates are spaced inwardly from the opposite side faces of the cross-ties and thereby provide a clearance space between the bottom of the rail and the top of the underlying cross-ties.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a lightweight rail anchoring device which will accommd date both of said tie plate arrangements above referred to and will insure flat abutting contact of the rail anchor with its associated tie plate throughout the entire length of the anchor device. In this connection the invention contemplates a rail anchor in which the metal is so distributed as to provide one end of the device with a hook having metal therein of greater thickness than the thickness of the under-rail portion of the anchor and the under-rail portion of the anchor may have a thickness which is less than the thickness of the tie plate against which it abuts, whereby the said hook will exert a strong resilient grip on a base flange of the rail and the underrail portion of the anchor may extend into the space which normally exists between the base of a rail and the top surface of a cross-tie when the rail is supported on a tie plate which is spaced inwardly from a vertical side face of a cross-tie.

Another object is to provide a lightweight anchor of the above general construction which will provide greater tie plate abutting area than is present in other rail anchors of this general class and thereby minimize the frictional wear on the abutting faces of the tie plate and the rail anchor. This object is attained by extending the ends of the rail anchor outwardly from opposite edges of the rail base to positions beyond the rail spikes employed to secure the rail and the tie plates in their proper positions on the cross-tie and thereby, in addition to increasing the area of the tie abutting face of the anchor device to minimize wear thereof, also balances the ap plication of thrust against the rail spikes at opposite sides of the rail so as to prevent the tie plates engaged by a rail from turning or skewing about a vertical axis.

The hook-shaped jaw, in addition to having a larger cross-sectional area than the under-rail portion of the anchor, provides a vertical surface for receiving an impact force for driving the anchor device transversely of the rail to its applied position and also provides forward and rear faces of substantial area for receiving an impact force applied to the anchor if and when it may be necessary to drive the anchor lengthwise of the rail into firm abutting engagement with the tie plate. The extensions of the anchor body beyond the locking shoulder provides a large area striking face adjacent the shoulder end of the anchor, whereby impact force for removing the anchor may be applied to the locking shoulder end without danger of striking and consequently indenting the adjacent base flange of the rail.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary plan view of a railway rail, tie plate and cross-tie showing a rail anchor constructed in accordance with this invention applied to the base portion of the rail in a position to abut against a vertical face of the tie plate;

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-section taken on line 22 of FIG. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 33 of FIG. 2.

Referring to the drawings: The structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises a base portion 10 of a railroad rail, a tie plate 11 on which said rail base is supported, cross-tie 12 underlying the tie plate, and a rail anchor 13 constructed according to the present invention applied to the rail base 10 in a position to abut against a vertical face 14 of the tie plate. The tie plate is secured to the cross-tie by means of a plurality of rail spikes 15 which are driven through holes 16 in the tie plate into the cross tie. The heads 17 of the spikes 16 overlie the top surfaces of the rail base flanges 18 and 19 with slight clearance 20 between the top surface of said rail base flanges and the bottom surfaces of the rail spike heads, so as to permit slight vertical movement of the rail base relative to the tie plate incident to the usual vertical wave motion of the rail when it is subjected to the load of a moving train.

The rail anchor 13 of the present invention does not abut against a side face of a cross-tie, as is conventional for other classes of rail anchors. On the contrary, it abuts exclusively against the vertical side face 14 of the tie plate 11. As a consequence, the entire thrust, incident to a creeping force exerted by the rail, is transmitted through the tie plate 11 to the said rail spikes 15, 15, and thence through the cross-tie 12 to the ballast 21 of the roadbed.

By constructing the anchor device 13 to abut exclusively against an adjacent tie plate 11 the anchor device, when in its applied position, is supported clear of the ballast 21. Inasmuch as the entire anchor device is clear of the ballast it will not become frozen in the ballast. Therefore, the said body 22 may be made relatively thin without danger of being displaced or loosened by reason of its contact with the ballast. Preferably the body portion of the anchor is somewhat thinner than the tie plate against which it is intended to abut. Consequently the anchor can be inserted into the space which normally exists between the bottom of the rail base 10 and the top surface 24 of a cross-tie when the tie plate is spaced inwardly from the vertical side face 25 of a cross-tie.

The anchor device may be described as comprising said body portion 22 which is of less thickness than the thickness of an adjacent tie plate 11 and formed at one end with a hook 26 providing an upper jaw 27 for gripping the inclined upper surface of one base flange 18 of the rail base 10. The portion of the anchor body 22 which underlies the upper jaw serves as a lower jaw 28 for gripping the bottom surface of the rail base 10 when the hook is expanded by movement of the latter upwardly onto the inclined surface of the rail base to its applied position thereon. -A clearance recess 29 receives the lower corner 30 of the rail base during the initial positioning of the anchor on the rail and thereby minimizes the extent to which the hook 26 is expanded during the driving of the anchor device to its applied position as shown in FIG. 2.

In order to provide the jaw 27 with sutficient metal to provide a strong resilient pinch on the top surface of the rail base flange 18, the jaw is made of approximately double the thickness of the under-rail body portion 22 of the anchor. It is also provided with a substantially vertical portion 31 which provides an outer flat surface 32 which serves as a striking face or target for receiving the impact force utilized to drive the anchor transversely of the rail to its applied position. The vertical portions 31 of the hook also provide a vertical inner face 33 which serves as a stop surface to prevent overdriving of the anchor beyond its applied position and consequently prevents overflexing of the book 26 beyond its elastic limit. It is important to limit the expansion of the hook 26, since it is composed of low carbon steel and therefore its elastic limit is relatively low as compared to that of steels having a high content of carbon.

The end of the anchor body 22 which is remote from the hook 26 is provided with a shoulder 34 for engaging the edge face of the base flange 19. This shoulder func tions to lock the anchor on the rail '10. In order to balance the forward pressures on the shanks 35 of the spikes 15, 15, the opposite ends of the body 22 of the anchor device are provided with extensions 36, 37 which project outwardly from opposite sides of the rail base to positons beyond the shanks 35, 35 of the rail spikes, whereby the creeping pressures exerted by the rail, during the passage of trains thereover, will be applied uniformly to the rail spikes at opposite sides of the rail. This balanced pressure prevents undue wear on said spikes and prevent the tie plates, engagegd by anchor devices, from turning or twisting to angular positions on the cross-ties.

I claim:

1. The combination of a railroad rail having a flanged base portion, a cross-tie underlying the rail, a tie plate interposed between the rail base and the top surface of the cross-tie and having a vertical face spaced inwardly from a side face of the cross-tie, whereby said vertical face cooperates with the bottom face of the rail base and the top face of the cross-tie to define a recess between said base and said cross-tie, rail spikes extending through the plate at opposite sides of the rail and into the underlying crosstie, and a rail anchor for application to the rail base in a position to abut exclusively against said inwardly spaced vertical face of the tie plate, and comprising a unitary body of rolled steel including a flat plate portion positioned in said recess for contacting the bottom surface of the rail base and for projecting laterally of the base at opposite sides of the rail to positions beyond said rail spikes, a hook formed integral with said plate intermediate its ends and overlying the rail contacting area of the plate to provide in cooperation therewith upper and lower jaws adapted to be expanded into resilient gripping contact with the top and bottom surfaces of the rail base at one side of the rail, and a shoulder formed on said plate intermediate said hook and the remote end of the plate for locking engagement with a portion of the rail base at the other side of the rail; the metal in the plate and in the rook being so distributed that the area of the plate for contacting the bottom of the rail base has its maximum thickness perpendicular to said area in a region of said hook and progressively decreases in thickness toward the locking shoulder end of the plate, whereby the progressive reduction in the thickness of the plate compensates for the height of said locking shoulder and facilitates its passage transversely of the rail through said recess and the thickness of the hook is substantially uniform throughout its length and is greater than said maximum thickness of the plate, whereby a transverse section modulus thereof at any location will be substantially greater than a section modulus through the maximum thickness of the plate and thereby insure maximum gripping force of the upper 4 and lower jaws against the rail base with minimum expansion of said jaws relative to each other.

2. A rail anchor for resiliently gripping the base portion of a railway rail in a position to abut against a tie plate interposed between said base portion and an underlying cross-tie, and comprising a unitary body of rolled steel including a plate portion which contacts the bottom surface of the rail base and is relatively thin and narrow as compared to the width and thickness of a conventional tie plate, a hook formed integral with the said plate intermediate its ends and overlying the rail contacting area of the plate to provide in cooperation therewith upper and lower jaws adapted to be expanded into resilient gripping contact with the top and bottom surfaces of a portion of the rail base at one side of the rail, and a locking shoulder formed on said plate intermediate said hook and the remote end of the plate for locking engagement with a portion of the rail base at the other side of the rail; the opposite edge faces of the plate being formed with extensions which project substantially equal distances laterally of the rail base to positions beyond said hook and said locking shoulder to provide increased area of contact with the tie plate and for balancing the creeping pressure exerted thereon at opposite sides of the rail, and the distance between the top of the locking shoulder and the bottom of the plate being less than the distance between the bottom of the rail and the top of the cross-tie, and the metal in the plate and in said hook being so distributed that the area of the plate for contacting the bottom of the rail base has its maximum thickness perpendicular to the area in the region of the hook and progressively decreases in thickness to said locking shoulder and the thickness of the hook is substantially uniform throughout its length and is greater than the maximum thickness of the plate so that a transverse section modulus through any portion of the hook will be substantially greater than a section modulus through said maximum thickness of the plate, whereby the hook and the adjacent portion of the plate have maximum reinforcement at the location required to resist the greatest expansive strains imposed on the upper and lower jaws of the anchor device.

3. A rail anchor according to claim 2 wherein the said hook includes a portion which extends substantially perpendicular to said plate and provides a flat outer surface defining a striking face to receive the impact force of an applying tool to force the hook into its expanded position on a rail base and also provides a flat inner face serving as a stop surface for abutting against the adjacent rail flange to limit the applying movement of the anchor and thereby prevent over expansion of said upper and lower jaws relative to each other.

References (Iited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 792,800 Sponenburg June 20, 1905 914,092 Weston Mar. 2, 1909 1,359,854 Wolhaupter Nov. 23, 1920 1,634,994 Hesterly July 5, 1927 1,728,188 Natale Sept. 17, 1929 1,817,325 Sinkovich Aug. 4, 1931 1,990,465 Johnson et al. Feb. 5, 1935 2,706,601 Robinson Apr. 19, 1955 2,827,240 Steele et al. Mar. 18, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,051,351 France Sept. 16, 1953 

